In Guilford County, North Carolina, the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Sharon L. Contreras, refuses to allow the public to attend school board meetings according to local activists fighting Critical Race Theory. Take Back Our Schools founder says Contreras is using emergency powers to shut them out.
In a video from Thursday, a group of parents yells as the door to the school close, and a school board member scoots inside:
“Let us in!’
A news reporter explains the situation, and Contreras is heard saying :
“The board meetings are not in the purview of the Superintendent. It is in the chair and the vice-chair of the school board.”
The parents’ group disagrees about Contreras’s concern for the district and meets her behavior with scrutiny.
Stephanie Mitchell, the founder of Take Back Our Schools, responded to the video:
How funny that Sharon Contreras yet lies again. Has she forgotten that she was given and still holds all the power since last March 2020?”
In the above video, a newscaster from local North Carolina describes the scene where a small group of concerned parents has gathered outside of a school board meeting outside. They are denied access to the meeting, so they can not enter their public comments about the topics on the agenda that night.
Mitchell told that Contreras hasn’t allowed the parent’s group to speak at the meetings because she is holding on to her ‘Emergency Powers’ at a critical time when parents have a lot to say.
Mitchell told :
“We would like to know why she is doing that. There are a lot of concerns about this district because it seems like Greensboro is the first in many things. We were the first at the Lunch Counter and other historic events. It seems like we are the first parent’s group to be shut out of School Board Meetings now too.”
“At the March 13th, 2020 Guilford County School Board mtg, the board voted to give Superintendent Sharon Contreras full emergency power over Guilford County Schools. Currently it has been brought up two times to take back their power and has failed. It was at that time until further notice all in person school board mtgs would stop. The public could make public comments through the GCS public comments email. The issue was many were not getting responses and felt that they were not being heard. Per the Chapter 115C of the North Carolina General Statutes, in addition to various other state statutes, school board meetings are to be open meetings and public records. Currently meetings are still closed to the public and FOIA requests are not responded to,” Mitchell said.
The group intended to make it peaceful, and it was, but they are still frustrated.
The group members have been following the connections of Contreras and studying her background in public education. They believe they see a pattern emerging of a far-left and radical agenda for the schools that do not reflect the will of the parents or voters in the area.
Attempts to reach Contreras were unsuccessful.
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